chres·tom·a·thy (kr-stm-th)
n. pl. chres·tom·a·thies
1. A selection of literary passages, usually by one
author.
2. An anthology used in studying a language.
3. Another damn stupid liberal blog

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Homegrown Terror's Role in the War on Women

The War on Women can be easy to conceptualize. The spectacle
of men making decisions for women without their consent and input speaks for
itself. The most telling distinctions, however, are often relegated to the
shadows. Shame and fear have been used with equal measure against women seeking
an abortion. Homegrown terrorists have sought to exploit these cultural fissures,
all in a misguided belief that violence is a practical solution. Though we
ought to monitor foreign terrorist networks and individuals that threaten our
safety, the threat of internal attacks need not be neglected, either.

For years, I walked by the New Woman All Women abortion
clinic on a daily basis. Adjacent to the campus of the University of Alabama at
Birmingham (UAB), it occupies a quiet, but intense corner of 10th Avenue South.
Only a few paces across the street is Al’s Deli and Grill, the hangout of many
an undergraduate. Busy chatting away, few students ever pause to peer for long
at the tenant opposite the restaurant. Even fewer wish to speak at length about
the services performed behind the blacked out windows.

New Woman All Women was bombed at 7:33 in the morning on
January 29, 1998. Its perpetrator was far-right, homegrown terrorist Eric
Rudolph. The blast killed Birmingham police officer and part-time clinic
security guard Robert “Sandy” Sanderson, while critically injuring nurse Emily
Lyons. Those who were living in nearby dorms or on their way to early class
that morning remember the sound of the explosion and how it carried across
several city blocks. Lyons, severely maimed by the attack, survived. She later
became an outspoken abortion rights advocate.

Rudolph’s most ambitious project until then had been the
audacious bombing of Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Summer Olympics in
Atlanta, Georgia. Security guard Richard Jewel was falsely accused of the
crime, but later exonerated. Aware he was being pursued by law enforcement,
Rudolph headed for the Appalachian region of Western North Carolina, where he
lived in hiding for the next several years. While living the life of a
survivalist in the mountainous regions of the state, the assailant was aided
and abetted by sympathizers.

When eventually caught and brought to justice, in 2003, Eric
Rudolph admitted planting explosive devices at two Atlanta-area abortion
clinics and at a lesbian bar. The suspect was unrepentant to the very end,
refusing to apologize for his crimes.

After Rudolph's arrest for the bombings, The Washington Post reported that the FBI considered
Rudolph to have "had a long association with the radical Christian Identity
movement, which asserts that Northern European whites are the direct
descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, God's chosen people."

Christian Identity is a white nationalist sect that holds
that those who are not white Christians will be condemned to Hell. In the same
article, the Post reported that some FBI investigators
believed Rudolph may have written letters that claimed responsibility for the
nightclub and abortion clinic bombings on behalf of the Army of God, a group that
sanctions the use of force to combat abortions and is associated with Christian
Identity.

After the front façade was rebuild, the entrance of the
clinic looked somewhat like a fortress. A prominent security camera was
installed, a feature that may have saved a life and spared physical and
psychological trauma had been in place at the time of the attack. For years,
the front was a drab, sedate shade of grey, but has since been repainted a dark
pink. The issue now, as it always has been, is not what one sees outside as it
is what goes on inside.

The clinic in March agreed to surrender
its license and close after a state investigation found problems including two
instances in which patients were given overdoses of a drug and had to be
transported to a hospital by ambulance.

The consent decree under which the clinic's license was
surrendered followed an investigation into instances in which two patients were
given an overdose of the drug Vasopressin on Jan. 21.

Each patient should have
been administered 0.2 cubic centimeters of the drug, which limits blood loss,
but they instead each were given 2.0 cubic centimeters.

Both women were transported to an unidentified Birmingham
hospital by ambulance after vomiting, though there was no indication their
condition was life-threatening, a report said.

These reports only reinforce anti-choice rhetoric. Abortion
foes have scrutinized this center in an effort to find any detail they can to
discredit its existence. Should New Woman All Women be forced out of business,
as seems likely, it would leave the Birmingham Metro area with only one
remaining abortion provider. In a Metro area of 1.2 million people, the
disruption of services would be felt acutely. Ironically enough, in another
addition to a national issue already in hot debate, Planned Parenthood
Southeast would be the one remaining option.

Abortion remains a highly combustible issue. As surely as
terrorist plots against us are being planned across the world, domestic
terrorism shares that very same threat level. Even the language of the abortion
dialogue has taken on militaristic, dogmatic trappings. Those who support
abortion decry anti-choice factions, implying that their opposition would
restrict a woman’s basic freedom and liberties. Pro-life forces speak stridently
about killing babies.

The latest debate over Planned Parenthood has only turned up
the heat. Where is this argument headed, beyond the Supreme Court? If we expect
further instances of violence, looking inside our own borders is essential. Who
is the next Eric Rudolph or the next Timothy McVeigh? One hopes that our
vigilance with disrupting Radical Islam carries over to other Americans with
destructive intentions.

1 comment:

I find it amazing that people that claim to fight for females rights can ever defend anything to do with Islam and Sharia law. But I guess if you live of welfare your entire life you are still entitled to your opinion